


Somebody Amazing

by WaitingxInxSilence



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon Universe, Comfort No Hurt, F/M, Fluff, Insomnia, Secret Identity, sleep paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 19:19:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5468024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaitingxInxSilence/pseuds/WaitingxInxSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug opens up to Chat Noir about her sleeping problems, and gets some unexpected inspiration.  Minor adult language.</p>
<p>Written as a Secret Santa gift for http://theawesometrinculo.tumblr.com.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somebody Amazing

It was a quiet night in Paris. The news had reported an upswing in purse-snatching, but now that Ladybug and Chat Noir were on the case-- nothing. Not even a jay-walker.

Chat Noir yawned, “Nothing's happening. Think it might be time to call it a night.”

Ladybug bit her lip. Yes, she was exhausted, and yes, Chat was right, but she wasn't in a hurry to go back to sleep. “What, not even a cat nap joke?”

“How could I miss that? I must be more tired than I thought.”

“Go ahead and catch some shut eye. I'm gonna stick around a while longer. You never know. Maybe while the Chat's away...”

“The mice will play.” He yawned again behind his clawed hand.

“Stop yawning, you'll make me yawn.” She yawned as well and jabbed Chat in the shoulder, “You! You did this to me!”

“What? Don't tell me you're not tired. You've been practically half asleep since we started.”

“I don't need to sleep.”

Chat huffed. “Lady.”

Ladybug pushed her bangs out of her eyes, squinting at headlights on the streets below. “Fine. I don't _like_ sleep.”

“Alight,” Chat sat back down on the roof. “I'll bite. You don't like sleep. Why?”

“Well, it's not so much that I don't like it, I'm just not that good at it.”

“I love sleep. I'm great at it. I'd sleep all day if I could. I'm great in bed.”

“That. Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“That! As soon as you start acting seriously, you turn into Mister 'I'm Chat Noir. I love sleep. I'm great in bed! Look at my muscles!'”

Chat bit back a smile. She liked his muscles, huh? “Sorry, LB. Serious moment. Serious Chat.”

Ladybug's hand went to her yo-yo, ready to leave. “Just forget it.”

“No! My lady! I'm sorry. No more puns. Promise.”

She sat back down with a sigh, a little closer to Chat this time. “I have... this thing. Sometimes, when I wake up, or when I try to go to sleep, I just freeze. It's like my mind is awake but the rest of me is still asleep. It doesn't happen too often. It probably only lasts a minute or so, but it feels like forever and” She shrugged, laughing halfheartedly, “it's kind of scary.”

“Oh. That's... wow. I mean, not 'wow.' I mean... I've heard about these things, but I've never met anyone who actually had them. Is there anything you can take for it or do about it?”

“More sleep, apparently. I've read that if you sleep more, you'll have to deal with it less, but it's like, if I don't sleep, I won't have to deal with it at all.”

“That's your plan? Just... not sleep at all?”

“Well...” She sighed. “I know it's terrible, but it's the only plan I've got. And when I do try to sleep, most of the time, I can't, so it's like... why bother trying? Besides, what if there's an akuma attack while I'm asleep? Paris needs Ladybug.”

“But what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Paris needs you, too.”

“That's what I said.”

Chat Noir pursed his lips, “You said, 'Paris needs Ladybug,' but Paris needs you too. Without the spots.”

She paused, pulling her knees to her chest. “Paris needs Ladybug, not need me. I'm nobody.”

“You know what I think?”

“What, that purr-haps I just need to try harder? Or I'm just making meow-tains out of molehills?”

“No. But I might have to steal that meow-tains line. I think you're wrong. You are somebody-- somebody amazing! Spots or no spots! And if anybody can't see that, then they're not worth your time.”

Marinette slept well that night. In her dreams, she relived the conversation she had with Chat Noir, though it wasn't Chat Noir talking to Ladybug, but Adrien talking to Marinette. Telling her she was needed. That she was somebody. Somebody amazing. 

Adrien Agreste shuffled through the thinning crowd to his locker. For everyone else, it was their daily lunch hour; For him, it was another piano lesson and, if he was lucky, a wheat grass smoothie. Before he could finish his combination, a voice cut through the room.

“Excuse me.”

It was Marinette, one aisle over. They'd hung out in groups a few times before, but he only knew her as the shy girl who sat behind him in class.

She was a bit louder this time, “Excuse me, I need to get through.”

“Sabrina, did you hear something?”

“Oh, um, Marinette just said--”

“There's this high-pitched whining in my ears. Oh yeah, it must be that annoying little nobody that stole my class presidency.”

Adrien bristled. There was going to be a fight. He shoved his books into his shoulder bag. It wasn't his business. Chloe could be completely justified-- he didn't know the whole story. Besides, Adrien wasn't the hero-- Chat Noir was. Even if he did want to intervene, he couldn't leave his driver and piano coach waiting. He was already on thin ice with his father for disappearing during lectures and photo shoots, but he couldn't explain that his vanishing acts were more than some “rebellious teenage phase.”

“I didn't steal anything! They voted for me, even after you tried to bribe your way in with concert tickets, if you recall.”

“Excuse _moi_? Nobody gets to talk to me like that! Especially some... some _nobody!_ ”

The word grated on his ears. _Nobody._ To hell with piano lessons! To hell with the Bourgeois  
and to hell with his father! It was past time to step in.

“You're wrong.”

Adrien froze in his steps. It was still Marinette at the end of the aisle, but she was different somehow. He could see it in her stance, and hear it in her voice. In that moment, she looked less like that tongue-tied damsel in distress and more like

“I am somebody. Somebody amazing!”

_His lady._

“And if you can't see that... if you can't see that, you're not worth my time.” High from her new-found confidence, Marinette swung her messenger bag over her shoulder and brushed by Chloe and Sabrina, “So whether you'll excuse me or not, I'm needed.”

His jaw slacked. _His lady._ She'd been sitting right behind him that entire year, stumbling into class late with one lame excuse after another, stuttering 'good morning' and 'good night' whenever their paths crossed, and 'coincidentally' showing up at so many of his public photo shoots. He'd been so wrapped up in thinking his lady was somewhere out there, somewhere, that he never considered she'd been beside him the entire time.

A brush on his shoulder snapped him back to reality. His lady. In an instant, her cool demeanor vanished and the stammering, awkward girl from before had taken her place. “Oh! Adrien. Hi. It's you! I mean, of course it's you. Who else would be you? I mean, who else could you be? Would you be. That's the thing. I think. Yes. Sorry.” She gasped for breath, the deep blush on her cheeks nearly drowning out her freckles. How had he never noticed those before? “Sorry! Sorry. I forgot to say sorry. Sorry. I, um, gotta go now. Sorry. Have a good lunch!” She stumbled away, nearly losing her footing when Adrien called out to her.

“See you after lunch?”

Her face brightened, eyes lighting up the way the usually did when hidden behind a spotted mask. “Yes! I'd love to! Err, I will. See you, that is. Or, um.” She hooked her thumbs through her belt loops, feigning confidence. “Yeah, that's chill. See you, not see you. Whatever. Later, Adrien!”

She rushed out of the building, cool air blasting her face, oblivious that her shouting could be heard from the locker room. “Alya! Alya! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! You'll never guessed what happened! Today is already the best day ever!”


End file.
